Chocolate's Good For The Soul
by Air Guardian
Summary: [YanaKiri] Ah, poor Kiri. He's never gotten chocolates before on this day. ;; (You're supposed to get cavities from this fic.)


**Chocolate's Good For the Soul**

* * *

Sometimes, what would happen, especially after Sanada was done chastising Kirihara about the younger boy's various shortcomings (and after Yukimura was done scolding Sanada about his anger management issues); Yanagi would approach the desolate soul carefully. He would quickly check that there weren't any eavesdropping redheads or malicious silver-haired sadists around and then ask softly if Kirihara would like to go for a drink. Deep forest eyes would sulk, shifting from corner to corner, staring at the ground and the sharp edges of the fence and Kiri would just grunt out a "No." Yanagi would smile, knowing that later, Kirihara would always change his mind.  
  
The walk to the ice cream parlor would always be silent as Kirihara would sink deeper and deeper into his black mood. Yanagi knew that the young prodigy was silently raging at himself, at Sanada, but mostly, yet again, at himself. The quiet master of Rikkai would watch as Kiri kick pebbles around and narrowly avoid bumping into people (for his face was always faced towards the ground). No, Kiri did not follow Yanagi. Always, it started out with Kiri tailing Yanagi yet somewhere in between, secretly, the roles would be switched.  
  
Yanagi knew that Sanada did not hate Kiri. In fact, Rikkai's fukubuchou was placing all his faith in Kirihara to lead Rikkai for next year. However, Yanagi did not have to be a genius to figure out that Kirihara was not the sort of person that could take on that harsh love.  
  
During their time at the parlor, Kiri would squirm in his seat until he finally summoned the courage to blurt out a thank you. It always happened and Yanagi would only smile back, saying that it was nothing.

* * *

Once, in the parlor, Kiri suddenly took a shift of mood and became angry. "Yanagi-senpai," he fumed. "You only do this for Sanada-fukubuchou right?"  
  
"Huh?" There had been a 97.0% chance that this topic would come up, but there was also a 23.6% chance that Kirihara would actually ask it. "No."  
  
Dark elfish eyes burned with assumptions. "Then why do you only take me here after Sanada-fukubuchou yells at me? You're only doing this to calm me down so I don't suddenly decide to quit the team!" By this time, Kirihara was fully chibified, aura blazing like a furnace from Hell, both feet on the table, and scaring away all the customers at the parlor.  
  
Yanagi innocently asked, "What other excuse would I have to take you out then?"  
  
"…" Kiri's angry aura blew out. He sat back down like a meek child.

* * *

Sometimes, late at night, perhaps around nine or ten, Yanagi would be disrupted from his reading by the doorbell. There, on his front porch, would stand Kirihara sporting the most stubborn look ever.  
  
Yanagi would swallow a laugh, knowing very well what this was about. Yet, he would still ask, "Can I help you?"  
  
"I want you to read to me," Kirihara pleaded.  
  
"You can read yourself."  
  
"Yeah, but the words make more sense when you read them out loud."  
  
There would usually be no argument there. Yanagi's family had already gotten used the elf's night time visits, thinking that Yanagi was Kirihara's tutor or something. However, Yanagi's family was usually out in the evenings and the boys would often have the house to themselves. There would lay Kiri, on the couch, curled up in a blanket as he listened to the soft, mellifluous flow of Yanagi's voice.  
  
Rikkai's master never asked once why Kirihara came so late at night. He had suspected it to be family problems.  
  
It didn't really matter though.

* * *

On Valentine's Day's Eve, Yanagi began to get an uneasy feeling from his classmates, particularly the ones of the female species (No, not gender. SPECIES). They seemed to emit some sort of predatory vibration, fully intended to knock him unconscious. He wasn't getting the worse case though. Yukimura had arrived at tennis practice that day complaining about a bad headache.  
  
It wasn't like this was the first time. However, the stretch of the year between one Valentine's Day to another made each tennis player forget about the true extent of the horror. Yagyuu had once asked Yanagi if he knew of some way to avoid the fangirls but Yanagi had just sighed and replied that he was afraid to get into a fangirl's mind.  
  
This year, Yukimura figured that they should just let the fangirls at them since, lets face it, nothing else was going to work. (He then kindly advised Sanada to NOT bring a sword again.) Somehow, through all of this, Marui made his buchou promise that he would give the redhead half his chocolate count.  
  
Yanagi couldn't help but notice that Kirihara was more sullen than usual. He didn't ask but immediately knew that something was wrong when he actually CHALLENGED Sanada to a match. The fukubuchou was startled and was about to reject Kirihara when Yanagi grabbed him by the arm.  
  
"Please," he asked Sanada in a low-key voice so that Kirihara wouldn't overhear.  
  
Sanada gave Yanagi a puzzled look. With one quick motion of a hand, he tugged on his hat a little and shrugged Yanagi's grip off. Sanada turned back to a confused Kirihara and replied, "Fine. One game."  
  
It seemed as if Kirihara had a lot of anger to vent.

* * *

Valentine's Day wasn't a topic brought up at the ice cream parlor that day until Kirihara and Yanagi had begun to walk back to their houses.  
  
"Are you feeling all right today?" Yanagi suddenly asked, hoping that he wouldn't denigrate Kiri's current mood into a detrimental one.  
  
"Eh?" Kirihara blinked a him owlishly. "I'm okay." He grinned a bit sneakily. "You should ask Sanada-fukubuchou that. He didn't yell at me once today."  
  
Yanagi chuckled. "I think he's frustrated over what he's going to get Yukimura for Valentine's Day."  
  
"Why doesn't he just give buchou chocolate?"  
  
"Well, usually only girls give guys that."  
  
"Oh, so buchou's going to give Sanada-fukubuchou chocolate?" Kirihara asked innocently.  
  
More laughing on Yanagi's part. "Maybe. That'd be interesting. But… I think another reason Sanada's not going to give Yukimura chocolate is because it's too common. Too many girls are going to flood Yukimura with sweets."  
  
The two boys reached the intersection of where they usually parted. Yanagi noted that a strange uncertainty had overtaken Kirihara's eyes. Before he could ask, Kirihara interrupted with another question.  
  
"Oil, Yanagi-senpai, how does it feel to get chocolate from a girl?"  
  
"What?"  
  
Kirihara shrugged, staring at the ground, his eyebrow furrowed together. "Just wondering. I've never gotten them before."  
  
Ah. The pieces clicked together in Yanagi's mind. So that was it.  
  
"It's nothing special," Yanagi replied.  
  
"I bet. I bet Yanagi-senpai gets a lot of sweets," Kiri grumbled.  
  
Yanagi's hand made contact with Kirihara's hair, playing with it gently. Rikkai's data boy just laughed. "I never eat them anyway," he answered. "I'll see you tomorrow."  
  
"Yeah. Good night Yanagi-senpai."

* * *

On Valentine's Day, Kirihara managed to weave through the crowd, unnoticed, to his locker. From the corner of his eyes, he watched as Marui bounced up and down in the hallway, obviously on a sugar high. In the redhead's arms were baskets of sweets (half of them by some weird guy named Akutagawa Jirou) and stalking after him was a horde of rabid fangirls. The herd rumbled past Kirihara, nearly knocking him over.  
  
Marui had, in the mist of his skipping, tossed Kirihara a chocolate. The young prodigy scowled as the chocolate heart bounced off the back of his head and rolled inches away from his feet. He eyed the note on the chocolate. Picking it up, he read: _**#247** UWAAA I LOVE YOU, BUNTA-KUN!! Love, Jirou_. Scowling again, he tossed the note onto the floor and smashed the sweet beneath the sole of his shoes.  
  
Crap. This day was pure crap.  
  
On the way to class, he passed by Niou, who was being chased by both his own fanclub and Yagyuu, mainly because he was threatening to scream out stalker information on Yagyuu if his doubles partner didn't treat him to his favorite yakiniku buffet.  
  
While taking his seat, Kirihara heard whispers about how Sanada had sent Yukimura silk roses and grumbled about how it wasn't that much of an original idea. Then again, Kirihara thought with half-lidded eyes, it would be nice to receive flowers.  
  
A darkly tanned hand appeared before him.  
  
Kirihara blinked, looking up.  
  
"I didn't see you this morning," Jackal said, giving him a note. "A girl asked me to give you this. I guess she was too shy to hand it to you herself."  
  
Kirihara stayed blinking, only this time, at the folded white piece of paper.  
  
"Aren't you going to take it?"  
  
"Huh? Uh, yeah." Snatching it from Jackal's fingers, Kirihara thanked the half-Brazilian. However, Jackal had already fled the area for he had been spotted by his fanclub.

* * *

The young prodigy gulped when he read the contents of the letter. There was no name. He turned it over, searching for some sign, but nothing.  
  
He closed his eyes, taking a deep sigh.  
  
His ears twitched. Far away, he heard Yukimura being attacked by fangirls and then Sanada quickly shooing them away…only to be attacked himself.  
  
Kirihara's hands folded around the note and he smiled.  
  
It felt kinda nice, even though there was no chocolate involved.

* * *

Perched on the park bench, the young ace watched as leaves skittered past him. The girl was late damnit. Kirihara bit his bottom lip, reading the note for the 1,347th time. Maybe Jackal had made a mistake? Maybe it wasn't intended for him. Hey, Kirihara thought bitterly, then again, maybe the girl was playing some sort of sick joke.  
  
He kicked a pebble.  
  
The rock bounced off of Yanagi's shoe. Kirihara nearly jumped out of his skin. He had been so absorbed in self-pity that he hadn't noticed Yanagi's presence.  
  
The older boy took a seat next to Kirihara, who eyed the chocolate basket he was carrying. It was wrapped delicately in translucent pink paper and inside was an assortment of dark and milk chocolate truffles.  
  
"Big fan, to give you all that," Kirihara grumbled.  
  
"Hmmm," Yanagi replied, yet it wasn't really an answer. "I was on my way to meet someone. What are you doing here?"  
  
"Enjoying the scenery," Kirihara spat out.  
  
Yanagi tilted his head. "Really." There was a trashcan ahead of them. "Not much to enjoy."  
  
Dark green eyes stared intently at the flies buzzing around the garbage. "Maybe I'm only fit for the company of what others don't want," Kirihara snarled out. "I don't get it, Yanagi-senpai. Am I that repulsive? Am I that pitiful? Am I pitiful enough so that some girl would want to play a joke on me on Valentine's Day? This is bullshit! BULLSHIT." Leaning forward, Kirihara began to gargle out more but the words caught in his throat. Wringing his hands about, he could do nothing with them except for hide his face in their palms.  
  
There was such a long pause that Kirihara thought that Yanagi-senpai had left him.  
  
Just like everyone else.  
  
Despair as he did, he soon learned that pessimism didn't always work. Kirihara felt Yanagi's arm around his shoulders. The older boy gently pulled Kirihara's head away from the cave of hands and planted a soft kiss on Kirihara's forehead.  
  
Dazed, Kirihara then watched as Yanagi placed the chocolate basket on his lap.  
  
"I don't want another girl's present," Kirihara instinctively said, remembering what had happened earlier with Marui (although the chocolate hadn't been from a girl).  
  
"They're not. I bought them myself," Yanagi replied simply.  
  
Silence. Kirihara found that his jaw wasn't working.  
  
"I'm sorry for being late," Yanagi continued. "Apparently, my fanclub has grown larger than I had previously estimated. They cut off most of my escapes so I had to make a big U-turn."  
  
Kirihara was still staring at the chocolates. "But Yanagi-senpai," he mumbled. "You said only girls give guys chocolates on Valentine's Day."  
  
Yanagi shrugged. "Who cares? Do you not like them?"  
  
The edges of Kirihara's ears turned bright red. Quickly, he placed the basket onto the ground. Then, Kirihara suddenly gave Yanagi a hug with such ferocity that he nearly tackled the older boy off the bench.  
  
"Thank you, Yanagi-senpai," he exclaimed happily, his voice muffled in Yanagi's chest.  
  
Stroking the back of Kirihara's untidy hair, Yanagi smiled, embracing the younger boy tightly. "Happy Valentine's Day, Akaya." 

_owari_

* * *

**Omake**

  
  
"Uh, Yanagi-senpai…"  
  
"Yes, Akaya?"  
  
"Jackal told me that a girl gave this to him."  
  
"A girl did."  
  
"So you asked one of your fangirls?"  
  
"No, I gave Jackal the note."  
  
"But…uh…"  
  
"Fufufufu. Don't you think that I make a pretty girl, Akaya?"  
  
"………" 


End file.
